Live from SIHH 2014

We’re on the ground in Geneva and hands-on with some of this year's most exciting timepieces

Every January, Geneva, the watchmaking capital of the world, rolls out the red carpet to 16 of the world’s most prestigious watch brands who come here to exhibit their latest. The Salon International De La Haute Horologerie is where journalists troll the pavilions looking to scope the latest trends, where retailers visit and hope to be the first to secure bulk consignments of limited-edition timepieces, and where manufacturers need to do very little to convince the world’s media that the Swiss luxury watch industry is having its moment. It’s the end of Day 1, and these are the watches that are on our radar.

Cartier

The day began with a presentation of this year’s novelties from the manufacturer of the world’s first commercial wristwatch. Unlike previous years where its watches were skewed in favour of women and unisex timepieces, this year’s offering had a number of exciting luxury men’s watches. This included the trippy Rotonde De Cartier Astrocalendaire Tourbillon Perpetual Calendar that featured brand new in-house designed movements and, interestingly, had the leap year display worked into the case back instead of on the dial. We also got an eyeful of the new Tank MC Two-Tone Skeleton. Unlike the Tank which is a unisex collection, the Tank MC is a family of watches designed exclusively for men, evident from the larger case size and bolder design cues including sharper and wider bezel designs. But the piece from Cartier that we were most excited to get our hands on was the new diver watch – the first diving watch from the Swiss-French watchmaker. The 42mm tool watch is good to go 300m below a watery surface and features an automatic movement that’s housed in an 11mm thick case that adds to the heft of timepiece when strapped on. It oozes an understated masculinity.

Vacheron Constantin

At last year’s SIHH, the world’s oldest, and arguably the most prestigious, watchmaker, released a women’s-only collection of timepieces. There were no new novelties for men. But this year, it’s made amends. Keeping with its theme for open-worked timepieces where the moment design and architecture was inspired by railway stations from the 19th century, Vacheron presented open worked cases of its manual-winding Malte collection that’s recognizable from the tonneau-shaped case, a classic Patrimony Traditionelle tourbillon with a 14-day power reserve whose components looked stunning and were perfectly framed by the 42mm platinum dial paired with an alligator leather strap. It also flaunted a Métiers d’Art Mécaniques Ajourées – that fantastic open work technique which builds upon Vacheron’s growing expertise as an enameller. A personal favorite was the one with a blue enameled ring on the dial. Gorgeous.

Audemars Piguet

There are three main families of men’s wristwatches from this Swiss manufacturer – the Gerald-Genta designed Royal Oak which debuted in 1972, the Royal Oak Offshore that debuted in 1993 and was a more masculine take on the traditional Oak, and the Royal Oak Concept that first debuted in 2002 and took off from where the Offshore left off, primarily featuring material innovation in its construction. This year’s Royal Oak Concept GMT Tourbillon features a titanium case with a ceramic bezel and a rubber strap. As of last morning, all 30 pieces manufactured for this year have been spoken for by retailers who attended the exhibition on the first day itself. Even if you do have USD 280,000 lying idle and ready to be dispatched to AP, the earliest you could get your hands on one of these timepieces is next year.

Panerai

To those not familiar with the brand, it may seem as though the marque primarily has only two types of cases, the Radiomir and Luminor. But a Paneristi knows better. While the Radiomir case debuted in 1936, the Radiomir 1940 case that had tougher lugs as compared to its predecessor, was manufactured a decade before the Luminor case that was first constructed in 1950 and was instantly recognizable by its half-crescent crown guard. The Radiomir 1940 case is what Panerai has revisited this year with references that include a tachymeter housed in a platinum, white gold and red gold cases. As for its new pocket watches, this year’s timepieces weren’t as visually stunning as last year’s GMT Tourbillon Ceramica, but is an elegant take on a classic accessory and keeps things simple with two novelties – one in red gold and the other in white gold – both of whose production is limited to 50 pieces.

Jaeger-LeCoultre

At the SIHH 2013, Jaeger-LeCoultre debuted a Master Ultra Thin that featured a movement wrapped in a 4.05mm thick case – one of the thinnest mechanical watches in the world. This year it’s decided to up its game in its Master Ultra Thin collection by offering a few grand complications to boot in these skinny cases. Impressive when you consider that they would literally have had to re-engineer the construction of a tourbillon and minute repeater in order to place it within this year’s Master Ultra Thin Minute Repeater Flying Tourbillon that has a case thickness of just 7.90mm, taking its place among the thinnest minute repeaters in the world. Other offerings from this marque included new references of the iconic Reverso and the sporty new Master Compressor Chronograph Ceramic.